Founding of demographic statistics: Development of the idea that vital statistics (records of christenings and burials in London) could be used to construct life tables. The average life expectancy in London was 27 years, with 65\% dying by age 16

Mediaitems:
Cover page of "Natural and Political Observations..." , Mortality table, from, Graunt portrait, Natural and Political Observations mentioned in a following Index, and made upon the Bills of Mortality, 1665, Short biography on John Graunt

Fitting a smoothed curve to a scatterplot, advocacy of graph paper and graphical methods as standard tools of science. ["The process by which I propose to accomplish this is one essentially graphical; by which term I understand not a mere substitution of geometrical construction and measurement for numerical calculation, but one which has for its object to perform that which no system of calculation can possibly do, by bringing in the aid of the eye and hand to guide the judgment, in a case where judgment only, and not calculation, can be of any avail.'' (p. 178)]

S, a language and environment for statistical computation and graphics. S (later sold as a commercial package, S-Plus; more recently, a public-domain implementation, R is widely available), would become a lingua franca for statistical computation and graphics

Mediaitems:
Boxplot of the NJ Pick-it Lottery, Richard Becker portrait, The R Project for Statistical Computing, A Brief History of S (Postscript), John Chambers portrait

First test of statistical significance based on deviation between observed data and a null hypothesis (used to show that the guiding hand of a devine being could be discerned in the nearly constant ratio of male to female births in London over 1629--1710)

Start of true interactive graphics in statistics; PRIM-9, the first system in statistics with 3-D data rotations provided dynamic tools for projecting, rotating, isolating and masking multidimensional data in up to nine dimensions

First inclusion of grand tours in an interactive system that also has linked brushing, linked identification, visual inference from graphics, interactive scaling of plots, etc.

Mediaitems:
Buja portrait, Buja home page, Hurley home page

Category:
Technology

This web version is dedicated to Arthur H. Robinson (1915-2004), who inspired and encouraged our interest; to Antoine de Falguerolles, who initiated it, and to les Chevaliers des Album de Statistique Graphique, who supported it with interest, enthusiasm, and resources. In particular, Gilles Palsky, Antoine de Falguerolles, Antony Unwin and Ruddy Ostermann contributed important images and background information. This work is supported by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Grant OGP0138748.

Citations: References to information or images obtained from this web site should be cited as follows:
Friendly, M. & Denis, D. J. (2001).
Milestones in the history of thematic cartography, statistical graphics, and data visualization.
Web document, http://www.datavis.ca/milestones/. Accessed: